Clear Tk7,938cr duty immediately

The Customs House Chittagong has urged the Bangladesh Oil, Gas & Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla) to clear due customs duty on imported Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).

The Customs House in this regard sent a letter to the chairman of Petrobangla, urging it to take necessary steps to pay off all duties immediately.

According to the letter, Petrobangla did not pay Tk 7,938 crore customs duty to the national exchequer, accumulated over 14 months, from December 30, 2021, to January 24 this year.

The letter, signed by Chattogram Customs Commissioner Mohammad Fyzur Rahman on February 16, also urged the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to take necessary action against Petrobangla for failing to pay the duty for such a long time. Officials concerned said due to the huge amount of dues, the customs house is failing to achieve its revenue target.

“According to Section 71 (A) of the Customs Act, companies shall clear taxation of the imported goods by submitting the bill of entry through electric medium and necessary documents to the commissioner concerned. And according to section 80, companies shall clear all duties of the imported goods,” the letter read.

“Although, Petrobangla did not submit all of the bills of entry and documents after importing the LNG), it got delivery of the imported LNG, because it is directly supplied to the national grid through a direct pipeline from the Floating Structure Regasification Unit (FSRU) as LNG is a specially featured good,” the letter added.

According to the customs house, Petrobangla submitted 88 bills of entry, where the amount of outstanding revenue is Tk 6,978 crore. But the corporation did not submit 16 bills of entry against the Import General Manifest (IGM), where the amount of outstanding revenue is around Tk 960 crore.

The letter added that the customs house has calculated the outstanding revenue against IGM based on a discussion with the local representatives of the Petrobangla.

Customs sources said they repeatedly sent letters to Petrobangla and the customs officials contacted the Petrobangla officials several times over the phone, but the corporation did not pay any dues since February last year.

The customs house issued a show-cause letter to importer Petrobangla on.June 20 last year, but the corporation did not respond to it.

Finally, in a letter sent on June 26 last, the customs house warned that if Petrobangla does not pay dues and comply with the Customs Act, the customs house will lock the corporation’s BIN, stop releasing the imported goods, and fridge the bank account, so that the Petrobangla cannot transact anymore.

In reply, Petrobangla sent two letters on July 7 and September 21 consecutively, assuring that the outstanding customs duty would be cleared after getting the subsidy from the Finance Division.

But, the assurance is yet to be implemented as Petrobangla has not still paid the due customs duty.

This correspondent repeatedly tried to reach Petrobangla’s chairman Zanendra Nath Sarker over the phone but he did not respond.

Commenting on the matter, Petrobangla’s Manager (Financial Management Department) Md Obayedur Rahman said, “Currently, there is 15 per cent VAT and 2 per cent AIT on LNG import. But we do not have the money to clear off the due customs duty.”

“The Petrobangla has sought subsidies from the Finance Division and Energy and Mineral Resources Division to clear the dues. We have informed the divisions 7-8 times through letters, but they are yet to take any step in this regard,” he said.

“Either we need a subsidy to pay the due duties or NBR has to exempt the duties of LNG import,” he added.

He said there is no scope to increase the price at the consumers’ stage as the end price is declared by the government.